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Madison — The state's yawning budget hole has swelled to $2.5 billion, underscoring the massive challenge that awaits the next governor and Legislature, a new report released Friday shows.

The projections by the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office show the expected shortfall for the 2011-'13 budget has grown by $462 million from the just over $2 billion that was expected a year ago.

It is one of the biggest projected shortfalls of the past decade, nearly as large as the $2.9 billion deficit that Gov. Jim Doyle faced in his first budget in 2003.

The state has survived other harsh budgets in recent years by relying on billions of dollars in one-time money from the federal government or pots of state cash including the transportation fund, but this time those relatively easy solutions will be tougher to find, said Mark Bugher, former secretary of the state Department of Administration.

"(The next governor) and Legislature are going to have significant challenges because the day of reckoning has arrived," Bugher said. "They are going to have to face up to the notion of cutting spending pretty dramatically or raising fees and taxes or a little bit of both."

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau report showed the potential deficit increased because taxes and fees aren't growing as quickly as expected and because lawmakers approved some modest additional spending and tax cuts at the end of the legislative session in the spring.

that wasn't my question idiot, my question was whether they should be doing it on the GOVERNMENTS DIME, the first woman said she was a public employee yet she is out there signing up people for the Socialist party during working hours during the protest.

so, should a PUBLIC EMPLOYEE be out signing up people for a political party WHILE she is suppose to be WORKING, at her JOB?!?!

If you are going to strip away the collective bargaining power of workers, they will collectivize and bargain in ways that do not seem legitimate (because legitimacy is defined by those stripping the rights)

Originally Posted by Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations

It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

They are bared from striking by state law. they are going to the protesting illegally on top of it. They are not allowed to do "sick strikes" which is what they are attempting to do by calling in sick to go protest.

If you are going to strip away the collective bargaining power of workers, they will collectivize and bargain in ways that do not seem legitimate (because legitimacy is defined by those stripping the rights)

they were given the privilege to Collectively bargain by the State in 1959, it's not a right, the state can take away that privilege at any time it wants.